Group photo at the end

On Friday February 21, 2015 I had the opportunity to participate as a volunteer at Provo City Library for a nonprofit program called Project Read in part with the Utah International Mountain Forum. Members of the club were there including Janessa-Michelle Purcell and Thomas Mogenson. Several members of the Center for Social Impact attended as well.

Dani explaining the process

 Project Reads mission is to build bright futures through literacy, digital skills, math, and conversation. They work to “change lives through literacy and empower individuals, strengthen families, build communities, and create new cycles of intergenerational literacy.” This highlights the reason why I wanted to volunteer there, because of the great work they do building up our community.

Thomas and Savannah happy to help 

For the two hours I was there, we worked with two leaders of the project named Dani and Ashlyn, they explained the process and split it up into two parts. The front row would take from the stack of childrens books and look up their ABE score, we would then find the correct level number and whether it was high or low correspondence to the ABE score. Then we would input this information into their database. Next, we passed it behind us and people would label the book properly so it is easily accessible for the children to reach and find on their own. This fosters independence and self confidence for the children.

Pile of books we completed putting into their database

My participation in this event reflects the importance and the successful results of the Student Engaged Learning (SEL) Model. As a student it is important to engage in different learning opportunities, interactive learning is very beneficial to application of real world issues. In this case, illiteracy and children in need of help are serious issues in which we can be a positive force for change.

My feelings of this event are all positive, I enjoyed being there with other people of similar mindsets and goals. I want to help my community in as many different ways as possible. I am learning that there are a lot of variety of opportunities to get involved and it always makes me feel good when I do. Reaching outside of ourselves, I think, relieves stress and anxiety.

                      -Savannah Niemann, UVU student